"A form of paving, as for a path, made of slabs of stone of irregular shape fitted together."

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Questions That Will Free Your Mind #2

What is worse, failing or never trying?

Never trying. Absolutely. I am probably fortunate in that I have very little fear of failure. My natural inclination is to charge into things hoping for the best but without any particular expectation of success. That way success surprises and delights me and failure does not worry me. I totally agree with G. K. Chesterton's statement that "if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly", which I read not as a justification for making a half-hearted effort resulting in a poor outcome, but as an encouragement to try even when something is difficult and not to let fear of failure, inadequacy or lack of ability sidetrack me from attempting something worthwhile. I know that if I reach old age I will not want to look back and regret the things I never had the courage to try. Will I look back and regret the times I tried something and failed? I don't think so.

I found a few quotes about failure to share (this is partly because I like the quotes, and partly because I want to play with the Pushbullet app which allows me to copy on one device and paste on another. Assuming it doesn't fail!)

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1858

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” - C.S. Lewis

“We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” - J.M. Barrie

And no, Pushbullet didn't work! Back to the drawing board on that one. It did nicely zap a link from phone to iPad, though for some inexplicable rreason it did it in French.

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Crazy Paving

Some of the oddly shaped, haphazard pieces that form the pattern of my life and the path that I walk ... archives, history, music, family, healthy eating, fitness, craziness, friends, laughter, faith. I am rarely bored, sometimes confused, often unfocused and talk too much.